Decision Made ... and the small world that is Ebay!

... we're staying put. No lunches for us this week. After beginning to feel brighter yesterday we both got up this morning wishing we didn't have to. I had a visitor this afternoon with some papers for me to sign relating to Dairy House, but other than that we're keeping ourselves to ourselves. This seems to be one of those bugs that pretends to go and then sneaks back in the door when you're not looking.


But what do you think of this ...


Remember I said about winning a mannequin on Ebay from a seller in Northampton. Well I wrote saying I probably wouldn't be able to collect it myself after all, but that Gillie would, and the seller replied saying he lived only about 5 miles from Gillie so would deliver it and gave his name and phone number. A name which rang a bell but I decided it couldn't be this person. So, when Gillie phoned him yesterday to arrange collection/delivery he asked if her friend was Mrs Paul Meager. Yes, said Gillie - it's Bob, isn't it. Yes, he replied!


Paul and I started working at Anglia Building Society (now Nationwide), within a few weeks of one another at the end of 1970, in different buildings and not knowing each other at the time. My Ebay seller was already working there and I met him almost immediately. Paul obviously knew him too as this was in the days when the Head Office of the Building Society totalled about 300 staff and we were names, not numbers. Everyone knew everyone else by name and generally speaking we were one big happy family; some years later Paul transferred to the same department as Bob. We moved to Bath 20 years ago and apart from the inevitable grapevine/jungle telegraph snippets and pensioners' magazine information we have basically lost touch with all the people who used to be a major part of our lives. We still do the Christmas card thing with a few which adds to the mix, but Bob wasn't in the same circle of friends and didn't know we had moved to Somerset. We've now emailed and caught up with each other's lives and he delivered the mannequin to Gillie earlier today. Her ex hubby was also in the Anglia family so Bob knows her, too. How's that for small worldliness! And it was just by chance that I thought I'd look to see if there were any mannequins for sale last week!! So Serendipity has been at it again!


He sent me his website - he plays and teaches guitar and still plays in a group called the Mantas who, when I was in my late teens, were THE local live group (probably the ONLY one). They played at all the Young Farmers dances, Dinner Dances (showing my age here) etc - no such thing as discos in those days, let alone nightclubs and whatever there is today - and were hero-worshipped by most of the teenage fraternity of Northampton. I'd completely forgotten the group, and the fact that Bob was part of it, until I saw it mentioned on his website. So I've had a real blast from the past 24 hours reminiscing about all sorts of things that I won't go into in blogland!! The scary thing is I'm talking about 40 years ago and I'm reliving it now as if it was yesterday. Eeek!!! Which reminds me, with all the fun and games of the wedding last May I missed the 40th anniversary of passing my driving test!!



This evening I'm loving quilts ...

and eiderdowns ...

... with apologies for the quality of the photos. You'll appreciate why these haven't reached the website yet. Not only do I need to take better photos, but also they're so nice to look at that I'm having a problem letting go!